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Welcomeselect an option
On 10 July 2002 John Denham, the Minister of State for the Home Office, informed Parliament that the power of detention given to Community Support Officers (CSOs) would be introduced in a controlled manner.
Alternatively the CSO may accompany the person to a police station with that person’s agreement. Any person who fails to wait with the CSO as required or who tries to make off is guilty of an offence.
The evaluation involved all six forces undertaking the pilot and covered a 15-month period from January 2003 to March 2004. To read more about the evaluation click on the link above but meanwhile WELCOME to Police Community Support Officer. Com The site is obviously here to support PCSOs and provide as much information for you as possible.
please make yourself at home here, this site is purely for PCSOs, nobody else. Click above contact line to email any site staff to query registration or volunteer articles.
09/10/2007 15:12 SUPPORT PCSOs, DON’T UNDERMINE THEM SAYS POLICE CHIEF British Transport Police Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter today came out in support of Police Community Support Officers warning that undermining them makes their job more difficult. ‘PCSOs have a crucial and increasing role to play in policing. They are not police officers and not a substitute for them and we don’t pretend they are, but the constant undermining of their role and authority only serves the interests of yobs and criminals,’ he said. ‘PCSOs are doing a good job and there are many people out there who are a lot healthier than they would be, but for their intervention.’ DCC Trotter pointed to the recent heroic actions of one of BTP’s longest serving PCSOs. Jay, who is based at London’s Waterloo station, was one of the first intake of PCSOs into BTP in 2005. Last week (Friday, 5 October), shortly after midnight, he was on his way home from work when he intervened to help a young man being attacked on a bus in Woolwich. Jay had boarded the bus at Woolwich station and a stop later a white male got on and racially abused the driver. He went upstairs and a short while later people from the top deck came back down the stairs as a fight had broken out. Jay went to see if he could help and found a black youth being attacked by the white male. Having identified himself and tried to warn the male off, Jay was himself abused and told he would get the same treatment. Jay then grappled with the assailant and detained him for 10 minutes until local police arrived to arrest him, sustaining several injuries in the process. Asked if he was scared, Jay, who is 54, said: ‘It is part of the job. I managed to secure him and twist his arm behind him until the Met arrived. A similar thing happened last week at Waterloo International, you get used to it.’ 09/10/2007 view more news view the thread view the article  |
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Specifically, he
stated:
“We want to allow for [the power] to be tested in practice in a sufficient number of varied forces to gain experience
of its operation before it is made available to all forces in England and Wales.”
The Police Reform Act 2002 makes provision for Community Support Officers to be designated with the power of
detention. Where a CSO has reason to believe that a person has committed a relevant offence he or she may require
that person to supply their name or address. 
A relevant offence is defined as either a fixed penalty offence or an
offence which has caused injury or alarm to another person or the loss of or damage to property.
If the individual concerned refuses to give a name or address or the CSO suspects that the details that have been given
a re false then the CSO may ‘require the person to wait with them for up to 30 minutes pending the arrival of a
constable’1. 
CSOs may use
reasonable force in order to detain a person, but they are not supplied with handcuffs, batons or CS spray.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) with the assistance of the Home Office Research, Development and
Statistics Directorate (RDS) undertook an evaluation of the use of this power and this report summarises the results of the evaluation.
WELCOME |
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